Thursday, August 13, 2009

Let's Go Back to 1789!

Did you see Senator Arlen Specter's town hall meeting on Tuesday? It featured a woman named Katy Abram asking the Senator "What are you going to do to restore this country back to what our founders created, according to our Constitution?"

In case you're not familiar with it, Ms. Abram is a 35 year old married mother of two. She and her husband run a small business, but she has no idea how much money they make because "he takes care of all the bills and money." She does have health insurance, but they have chosen a policy with a $5,000 deductible and rarely meet that so they pay all their own medical bills. And until this whole health care debate had never been interested in politics. 9/11 didn't get her interested. Neither of the two wars we've been involved in since then got her interested. But NOW she's interested.

Why wasn't Ms. Abram interested? I'm so glad you asked. She said on Hardball tonight that she just never cared and that she was too busy. Really.

Ms. Abram appeared on Hardball tonight and was interviewed by guest host Lawrence O'Donnell. He asked her some really tough questions.

My favorite questions had to do with Social Security and then with that great question she poised to Senator Specter. O'Donnell asked Ms. Abram if her parents are on Medicare and she answered that they are almost 65 and when pressed if she was going to tell them not to accept Medicare because it's Socialism and not in the Constitution, she would only say they didn't discuss politics.

Listening to her try to wiggle out of answering her question to Senator Specter was fascinating.

Just for fun, let's look at what she's advocating, but refuses to admit:

1. When the Constitution was written, black people were only 3/5 of a person. They were also slaves. They weren't freed until a lot of people died in the 1860s during the Civil War. See the 13th Amendment. While the 15th Amendment abolished race as a barrier to voting, we all know they didn't have the right to vote guaranteed until 100 years later when the Voting Rights Act was passed and those nasty literacy tests and poll taxes were abolished.

2. When the Constitution was written, women were not allowed to vote. That right wasn't granted until the 19th Amendment was ratified almost 81 years ago thanks to a lot of women who didn't put up with the BS about it wasn't in the Constitution so the answer is no and women shouldn't worry their pretty little heads about manly things like politics. Obviously, Ms. Abram isn't worried about this since she doesn't care about politics anyway.

3. Social Security and Medicare didn't exist.

4. We didn't have any of those ridiculous things like environmental laws, education standards, workplace safety rules, car safety rules (wait, we didn't have cars either), etc.

5. At age 35, Ms. Abram would be an old woman (if she had lived through childbirth) and she might not have two (presumably) healthy children. Many women died during labor and many children who survived that died during infancy or childhood because we didn't have any of the drugs we have today to prevent childhood diseases. The National Institutes of Health and the CDC certainly weren't envisioned by the Founding Fathers.

Of course, all of that is just the beginning. I could go on and on, but won't. You get my point.

What world exactly is Ms. Abram suggesting we live in?

5 comments:

  1. Brilliant. - Vincent Truman

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  2. It must be nice to be completely healthy... When one of her children gets hurt, i.e. a broken bone or needs additional operations, as it sounds like her son has had one and needs another - or, heaven forbid, she or her husband suffer from cancer and have to sell their small business and, eventually have to declare bankruptcy, will she then still believe that health care for all is "socialism"?

    "I'd rather not say" = yes, it covers me, meaning they make a hell of a lot of money...

    I wonder what they do for a living...

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  3. Well, In her defense, she did say (and I quote)... "To me [pause] um...Maybe I'm just not that smart".

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  4. Ratgurrl, You are right. Ms. Abrams did let us know that her intelligence was in question. My bad. Although, I have to say, I'm not so sure "maybe" is appropriate here. I'm just sayin'.

    Bethany, I spent about 5 minutes googling Ms. Abram and I can't find it. But I'm curious, just like you.

    Anyone else wanna give it a try?

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  5. I liked how, in another interview (I believe), she was asked to respond to what Spector had to say and she says oh, honestly, I was so nervous, I didn't really hear what he said. Oh, okay.
    Soooo...washing my hands after I go to the bathroom isn't in the Constitution, but I do it anyway.
    Just sayin'.

    ReplyDelete

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